Fulham defeat careless Botlon

A stylish Fulham side claimed all three points from their trip to Bolton on Saturday afternoon.

The Reebok Stadium was the theatre of a well-deserved 3-1 win for the West Londoners, who worked hard and played an attacking style of football that has served them well this term.

The Trotters only lie four points above the relegation zone following this disastrous home defeat during which defensive howlers made a meaningful difference.

It was level at the break, with Andy Johnson breaking the deadlock in the 42nd minute after a massive Andy O’Brien mistake, only for Kevin Davies to equalise straight away after beating Paul Konchesky inside the box.

Simon Davies restored Fulham's lead shortly after the break, after Danny Murphy had hit the woodwork, and Diomansy Kamara finished the work off with his first goal of the season.

Matt Taylor produced the first effort on goal with a curling free kick, but the midfielder’s set piece was blocked by a compact wall.

The Cottagers hit back with their first attempt of the game thanks to Ghana international John Pantsil, who was in the right place at the right time to unleash an ambitious volley from the edge of the box, but the full back fired his effort over the top of Jussi Jaaskelainen's goal.

Lovely triangular play involving Pantsil, Johnson and Bobby Zamora allowed the former to try his luck with an acrobatic effort, but the ex-Hammer missed the target.

At the other end, The Trotters came as close as they could to scoring without actually doing so in the 30th minute when Schwarzer saved a Johan Elmander set piece but could not clear the danger and this allowed Gary Cahill and Gavin McCann to threaten his goal from close range.

Cahill’s first effort was saved by the Australian keeper, his second was blocked by Aaron Hughes and then McCann fired into the stands.

Nine minutes before the break, Bolton hit the back of the net courtesy of a cool Taylor finish, but the referee disallowed his effort with the midfielder well offside.

Roy Hodgson’s men responded immediately through a Zamora volley, but Jaaskelainen made a brilliant save to deny him the opening goal of the afternoon.

Fulham continued to push and Kevin Davies cleared Johnson’s effort off the line, after the attacker controlled a Simon Davies corner with his chest and fired a powerful effort towards goal.

The visitors made the breakthrough courtesy of a gift from their hosts. Johnson made the most of O’Brien’s howler, with the defender failing to intercept Simon Davies’ through ball and the striker slotted home from close range.

But Bolton equalised three minutes later thanks to the promising understanding of Kevin Davies and Mark Davies, with Kevin hitting a low and cross-shot past Schwarzer and into the bottom left corner after a nice one-two with Mark.

Bolton started the second half on top, with Taylor’s header from Ricardo Gardner’s cross comfortably blocked by Schwarzer, and then the Aussie keeper denied Elmander’s vicious attempt at full stretch.

The Cottagers took a second lead in the 56th minute when Danny Murphy fired an effort against the face of the bar from a difficult angle, and Simon Davies drilled home the resulting losse ball, with Bolton’s defence unable to clear it off the line.

There is little doubt Mark Davies impressed his manager thanks to his hard work and his assist, but he was forced off after Client Dempsey fell on his knee.

Twelve minutes from time, Dickson Etuhu poked a chance that flew just wide before Fabrice Muamba did exactly the same for the home team, who pushed to salvage a point but never looked likely to equalise.

Hodgson’s men finally added a third goal through Kamara, who pulled his low shot into the bottom right corner with two minutes to go. McCann made a shocking pass from the right wing that Dempsey intercepted and the US international coolly set up his African partner.